Making perfumes past and present

The company’s report recognised the current trends for “celebrity inspired scents” as well as growth in the men’s fragrance market. But the production of perfume is an ancient industry, with techniques refined since ancient times and ingredients found in unlikely places. Caroline Morley

This fresco from Pompeii in Italy shows perfume production in Roman times. Male and female figures represent the perfumers, who are using aromatic plants to prepare perfumes and oils. The winged perfumers are working at a bench (left) and vat (right) to mix aromatic oils and prepare new extracts. The cupboard holds cruets and bottles of the extracts.

(Image: Patrick Landmann/Science Photo Library)

Known for their groundbreaking work in the sciences, it is not surprising that the 13th-century Arabic nations also refined perfumery. In the ninth century, the philosopher and physician al-Kindi listed recipes for more than 100 perfumes.

This is an illustration after a 13th-century drawing of a steam distillation plant for distilling rose water. Steam distillation reduces the boiling point of compounds, allowing the scent to evaporate at lower temperatures.

(Image: Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library)

This is a Siberian musk deer (Moschus moschiferus). Its musk gland, situated in its buttocks, has been a prized ingredient in perfume and medicine manufacture since ancient times. The perfume market now largely uses synthetic musks – but the medicinal market is still driving demand for the glands. As a result, overhunting has pushed the species onto the vulnerable list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

(Image: Stanley Breeden/NGS/Getty Images)

Ambergris is a waxy secretion of sperm whales, usually excreted from the mouth or anus and found floating in the sea or washed up on beaches. Fresh ambergris smells pretty bad, but in spite of this it used to be a common ingredient in perfumes. It was used to preserve their fragrance, but synthetic alternatives are now generally used instead.

(Image: Foto Natura Stock/FLPA)

Perfume creators are now using molecular advances in their work. This is a benzaldehyde molecule used in modern perfumes for its bitter almond odour. It is an organic compound based on a benzene ring, and it's pictured here showing some of its different characteristics, helping perfumers identify its properties.